


his affection every moment more valuable

by freezerjerky



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 09:11:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5369774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freezerjerky/pseuds/freezerjerky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Pride and Prejudice? I wasn't aware we were still in high school advanced placement English.”<br/>“Don't you chirp me, Jack Zimmermann,” Bitty retorted with a very bad attempt at a glare. “You're the one reading a book I know for a fact is assigned as a textbook for history classes.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	his affection every moment more valuable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theholidayclub](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theholidayclub/gifts).



> For holidayclub: I noticed, upon glancing through your tumblr that you seemed to be a fan of Pride and Prejudice and the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I happen to be a diehard Janeite, so I had to jump at the opportunity. I think our Bitty would love Pride and Prejudice and he would definitely see his Jack as Mr. Darcy. I hope you like this! It was fun to write and my first posted fic for the fandom.  
> Title unsurprisingly from Pride and Prejudice.

It wasn't exactly a secret in the Haus that Jack and Bitty were together. More or less the issue was that it was a secret pretty damn near everywhere else, so it was easier, when Jack would come to visit, that he'd spend most of his time with Bitty alone in his room. At first some of the less oblivious residents of the Haus seemed put out that Jack, cool pro hockey player Jack, was hiding away with just one person, but after Chowder saw them holding hands at the table, and a few of the other boys say Bitty perched on Jack's lap with the door wide open, there really wasn't anything in the way of a mystery.  
  
The point is, once people realized that in those occasions, Bitty's room was nothing short of a love nest, most people steered clear. The two young secret/not-so-secret boyfriends were left in their own little world, to do as they chose. People who didn't know Jack and Bitty well may have assumed they were up to things less wholesome than they usually were (not to say there wasn't some unwholesome activities, usually paired with very wholesome giggling), but more often than not their activities tended to be of the cuddling and something else variety.  
On this particular day, the activity of choice was cuddling and reading, with the soft and sweet sounds of Beyonce coming through shared earbuds. (Jack had long since learned that to love Eric Bittle meant to love Beyonce and God, he loved Eric Bittle.) They determined to have a nice, quiet day. Or as quiet Jack can manage when he's constantly distracted by the way Bitty's laughing under his breath or making very satisfied noises as he read.  
  
“What're you reading, Bittle?” he asked, peering up at Bitty (he'd had his head in his boyfriend's lap in hopes that he'd get a scalp rub out of it.)  
Bitty stopped reading for a few moments and showed Jack the front cover of the book.  
  
“ _Pride and Prejudice_? I wasn't aware we were still in high school advanced placement English.”  
  
“Don't you chirp me, Jack Zimmermann,” Bitty retorted with a very bad attempt at a glare. “You're the one reading a book I know for a fact is assigned as a textbook for history classes.”  
  
“Alright, alright,” Jack laid his book across his stomach and held up his hands in surrender. “I just thought you'd be reading something a bit more...modern or trendy.”  
  
“There is nothing more trendy than Fitzwilliam Darcy.”  
  
Jack laughed and then the golden moment happened where Bitty's hand moved to his head, running through the dark tendrils. He could absolutely melt into the touch and attention honestly. Never in his life had Jack imagined being with someone so freely and genuinely affectionate. Bitty wasn't just affectionate for the sake of claiming or being in love, it was just who he was. In one of his artsy seminars he was forced to take, Jack had remembered a discussion about love languages. After a few months with Bitty, and two years of prior experience of him, he could safely say that Bitty's love languages were pure, unfiltered affectionate actions and words and baking pies. And Jack? His love language was...he wasn't really sure. Maybe being receptive to petting from Eric Bittle, or being quietly supportive, or mooning after his boyfriend whenever he could get a moment he wasn't watched.  
  
“Okay, so what's so good about Fitzwillis Darby?” Jack teased.  
  
“Well, for one he's very rich,” Bitty began, peering down at Jack. “Two, he's very handsome. Both things anyone would want in a husband, then and now.”  
  
“Is that what you look for in a husband?”  
  
Jack reached up, rather awkwardly, for Bitty's free hand and laced their fingers together. He was forced to turn onto his side, but he didn't care.  
  
“I mean, I'd hope that I find my husband very handsome. But rich isn't necessary. There are other things that make Mr Darcy perfect for me, in my opinion.”  
  
Jack almost dropped the conversation when Bitty started to gently scratch his head. He was in absolute heaven at that moment.  
  
“So what makes him perfect?” he finally said, after a few moments of the human equivalent of purring.  
  
“I didn't say he was perfect. I just said he's sort of like what people should want in a husband, or what people like.”  
  
“And why's that?”  
  
Bitty seemed to be thinking hard about it for a few moments, debating the best merits of a fictional hero. Jack loved watching his face shift with thoughts, how expressive Bitty was in each moment, even his stillest moments. There was also a bit of envy in him, not that Bitty was so unguarded, but that he couldn't always be so unguarded around Bitty, or in public, for that matter.  
  
“Well,” Bitty said at length with a very matter-of-fact tone, “He seems very aloof, but it's really because he's kind and deep, but shy. He acts that way because he doesn't know how to act, and while Elizabeth helps him open up, it's not like she changes him she just...helps the people who matter see the value in him. He was always a very good man, but she made the world realize it, and maybe even him.”  
  
“I don't know.” Jack shrugged a bit. “By the sound of things, Elizabeth is the person you should want to marry, right?”  
  
“No, no,” Bitty retorted. “Elizabeth isn't a brooding hero that looks good in tight pants. Though I'm sure she looks good in tight pants in a very different way. S'pose it doesn't help that girls aren't really my thing.”  
  
“So how much does your type depend on looking good in tight pants?”  
  
“A lot. In case you can't tell, with your hockey butt.”  
  
Bitty stroked Jack's cheek very lightly, just the lightest brush of fingertips on skin. Jack shifted, sitting up on his knees.  
  
“Is that why you like me?”  
  
“Among other reasons.”  
  
“And what are those reasons?”  
  
“I think I just listed some of those, Mister Fitzwillis Darby Esquire.”  
  
Jack chuckled and shook his head. “I don't think they use Esquire this day except for lawyers.”  
  
“Shitty Knight Esquire,” Bitty replied, using a voice he'd dubbed his “Important Voice.”  
  
Jack grinned and pulled his boyfriend in for a kiss, which Bitty returned with all the enthusiasm of someone kissing their Mr. Darcy.

 


End file.
